Ichsani Wheeler – We need more large animals in our landscapes

Ichsani Wheeler, co-founder of OpenGeoHub and Envirometrix, challenges dominant assumptions in land use and agricultural design, making the case for more large animals in our landscapes—not fewer. She explains why understanding the maximum ecological carrying capacity of agro-ecological systems is essential for restoring function, productivity, and resilience in both natural and farmed environments. Wheeler advocates for granular, place-based research to better inform ecological planning, arguing that broad generalizations fall short when it comes to the complex realities of nutrient cycling and biomass distribution. Megafauna plays a critical role in ecosystems as mobile nutrient cyclers, creating disturbances that stimulate plant growth and biodiversity. Without these interactions, ecosystems become shadows of what they could be – efficient, resilient, and abundantly productive as animals’ absence leads often to stagnation and imbalance.

This episode is part of the Role of Animals in food and agriculture systems of the future series, supported and co-produced by the Datamars Sustainability Foundation.

Since 1970, we’ve lost approximately half of all wild animals larger than a dog-sized creature – a profound ecological shift happening within our lifetimes. But what does this mean for agriculture, food systems, and our future?

WHY LARGE ANIMALS ARE FUNDAMENTAL FOR A FUNCTIONAL LANDSCAPE

Large animals are important nutrient cyclers, preventing over-accumulation or depletion of nutrients in ecosystems. Their absence disrupts ecological balance and productivity.

“The role of animals in an ecosystem is, generally, they are the cyclers of nutrition, like nutrients. So, they will eat in places that are of a higher concentration of nutrients. In the Netherlands, in deltas, in lowlands, in these lower sections there’s a lot of biomass and if there isn’t a mechanism for that animals, for that biomass and nutrient it holds to be moved, then you end up with an over accumulation of nutrients in one place and a depletion in another.” Ichsani Wheeler

WHY THE SEPARATION OF ANIMALS AND ARABLE FARMING HAS HAD SUCH DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES

The question isn’t whether animals belong in agriculture, but how they can be thoughtfully reintegrated. Modern livestock, properly managed, can fulfill many ecological roles previously played by now-extinct megafauna – creating beneficial disturbances, cycling nutrients, and stimulating plant growth. Disconnecting livestock from cropping systems leads to nutrient pollution and waste. Manure mismanagement in industrial systems exemplifies this breakdown.

“Say you’re keeping animals and you have a big barn and you have a massive abundance of manure. What else could it be? Where could it go? How else could it be treated? Can you switch to a dry basic system? Right? So, you’re not washing it away in water and putting it into a big ammonia pool.” Ichsani Wheeler

WE NEED MORE RESEARCH INTO THE MAXIMUM ECOLOGICAL CARRYING CAPACITY OF LANDSCAPES

The science is clear yet often overlooked: functional ecosystems increase their capacity over time. They don’t deplete; they aggregate more nutrients, build organic matter, enhance biodiversity, and develop complex relationships that capture more solar energy. This understanding flips conventional thinking about carrying capacity on its head.
It’s necessary to understand the theoretical maximum ecological carrying capacity of landscapes to sustain life, stressing that current data is too generalised. Granular, place- based research is critical for ecological planning and restoring nutrient cycles.

“ It’s to answer that theoretical, maximum ecological capacity of plant biomass, animal biomass place-based ’cause the averages, they do exist, they wrote nice papers with averages on very large, very large resolutions. But to do planning, we need to be a lot more granular in that information.” Ichsani Wheeler

METABOLIC SCALING AS A FRAMEWORK FOR AGRICULTURAL REDESIGN

Through cutting-edge remote sensing technology, researchers are mapping just how much potential remains untapped. Most conventional croplands capture only about half the available sunlight energy compared to adjacent natural areas. This represents enormous opportunity, not limitation. Ichsani links metabolic scaling principles to modern agriculture, stressing the need to align land use with energy capture and nutrient cycling. She argues that maximizing sunlight conversion and animal-driven nutrient turnover is key to resilience.

“It’s not magic, it’s physics. The energy comes from the sun shining. So you must have the plants capturing that energy. You need to have the animals eating it, turning it over, reusing that nutrient again and again, more and more, more, more nutrient in the functional ecosystem, not in the bottom of the ocean.
I think the biggest issue that I see for like, large scale integration of animals into ecosystems at landscape level, the way we talk about it is our form of land ownership in Western modernity. We don’t price land based on what it can produce. We put fences around it. We use it to park large amounts of money” Ichsani Wheeler

OTHER POINTS DISCUSSED:

Koen and Ichsani also talked about:

Why “empty forest” syndrome is import
We can have much more life in landscape and we need many more animals to cycle nutrients
Terrifying loss of animal life last 50 years megafauna numbers

LINKS:

LINKED INTERVIEWS:

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